Happy New Year, I can't feel my teeth.

As I was sitting comfortably in my warm house New Year's Eve, my phone rings. It was Debi.

"What are you doing tomorrow?"

And then I knew she was going to ask me to run the Hangover Classic.

I've run the race - a 10 miler along the Ohio River - twice before (2005 and 2006). I didn't run it last year, and rather enjoyed not having to worry about what time I went to bed. I don't like the course. It starts at 10am, so I don't get home until early afternoon. And the T-shirt usually sucks (it always has a mock turtleneck).

Alas, as my enabler, she got me to agree to meet her at Louisville Turners the next morning a little after 8am to register (she wanted to make sure she got an ugly shirt, since late registers weren't guaranteed one), but as my plans for the rainy, windy evening involved Steak-N-Shake and Dick Clark, I figured what the hell. That, and I made her promise to run with me for the whole race, which never happens normally.

Waking the next morning, it was cold. Like 18 degrees cold, not to mention gusting winds. I dressed, ate, and headed out, sending Debi a text message: It's cold and early and I kind of hate you right now.

After registering (and as a plus, the shirt actually didn't suck - black, long sleeves, and a crew neck), we then got to wait around inside for 75 minutes, where we already started to get cold. Once we finally started running, it didn't get any better. The first half of the race was into the wind, and I quickly lost feeling in my legs, toes, and lower lip, making it hard to talk. Then my teeth froze.

It's happened before, on training runs and a race or two, as I breathe from both my mouth and nose. It is such a bizarre feeling. Between that and my lip, I was pretty much unintelligible. We hit the aid stops at miles 3 and 6, and then started the nasty 3 miles back down River Road (which is concrete, making it even more fun) to Turners. I had started drafting behind Debi miles ago, but now she decided that we were going to pass people to keep things interesting. I didn't need interesting. I needed a heater.

On a plus side, we DID pass several people, and played leap-frog with one runner. Finally, with a half-mile to go, I yelled at Debi to go on, as she really, really wanted to pass this one guy that I knew I couldn't catch. We finished (several minutes slower than a few years ago, but at this point, I really didn't care), and had to fill out a little card with our name and time. Did they not realize that it was in the teens and that fine motor control was not possible? I got mine done, my handwriting looking like a serial killer's, and then headed inside for coffee. I was so cold, I was willing to set Debi on fire for warmth.

We hung out for a little while, then had to go BACK OUTSIDE to our cars a few blocks away. And we thought we were cold before. I now understand Debi's love for sweatpants and ass-ugly Ugg boots. I have since bought a pair of really big fleecy sweatpants, and am going to buy a generic pair of the boots. I think they'll be nice to put on after my soon to come 5am swims.

So, tho I bitched, I did enjoy myself. And it was a helluva way to kick off the new year.